Jasper Johns paintings. Jasper Johns and modern pop art

August 14 James Mayer, former assistant American artist Jasper Johns, who worked with him for more than 25 years, was arrested on charges of stealing 22 of his paintings. All the stolen paintings were sold. The total proceeds from the sale were about $6.5 million, $3.4 million of which went to Mayer. On August 15, he was charged with fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. In total prison term both crimes could carry up to 30 years.

6.5 million for 22 paintings, some of which turned out to be unfinished, is a very small amount if we're talking about about the paintings of Jasper Johns, who has been repeatedly recognized as the most expensive living artist. In 1980, New York's MoMA bought Three Flags from the artist for a million dollars, at that time the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist. Jones later beat several times at auctions own record. For example, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York paid about $20 million for his work “White Flag” in 1998, or when his most famous work, “The Flag,” was sold at auction in 2010 for $28.6 million.

Flags in Jones's work have become not only a sure way to make money, but also business card. Jones created these three works, which turned out to be significant for his work, from 1954 to 1958, inspired by the ideas of Marcel Duchamp: “Flag” (1954), “White Flag” (1955) and “Three Flags” (1958). In 1960, the artist cast his famous “Flag” in bronze. Later, about forty works were created in the series with flags. The use of such an important symbol for Americans caused numerous discussions about the meanings contained in the work. While critics debated whether Jasper Johns treated the Stars and Stripes with respect, the artist stated that he was primarily interested in the stars and stripes themselves, that is, in the geometry of the flag as an object. “Some say that the flag I painted should be considered only as a painting, others that the painting should be considered as a flag. Actually, I meant both, so you don’t have to choose,” Jones said in an interview in 1960. In addition to flags, the artist created many objects in the most different techniques- from sculpture to relief painting and encaustic painting (that is, painting with hot wax), turned to various symbols popular culture.

Photo: Sten Rosenlund / REX / FOTODOM.RU

Jasper Johns is a significant figure for post-war art second half of the 20th century. Starting to work at the height of the popularity of abstract expressionism, he tried his hand at neo-Dadaism, pop art and conceptualism. But no matter what artistic movement no matter how Jones's works were attributed, they were always sold at great success. The title itself dear artist he got it not without outside participation: this was largely facilitated by his acquaintance with the famous gallery owner and art dealer Leo Castelli. Castelli saw the work of the 28-year-old Jones in the studio of Robert Rauschenberg in 1958 and was so impressed by the work of the young artist that he invited him to organize personal exhibition. Castelli, known for his flair and business acumen, brought Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein to the world art market - it is not surprising that Jones' sales began to rise from the late fifties.

When 22-year-old aspiring artist James Mayer first knocked on the door of Johns' studio on John's Houston Street in 1984, he had no idea who he was dealing with. Mayer's knowledge of art history at that time, according to him, ended somewhere with the Impressionists. Young artist satisfied his ambitions by painting endless copies of Van Gogh and Matisse for the Beefsteak Charlie's chain for $6 an hour. A friend advised Mayer to start a career in the art world by assisting some famous master. He, without thinking twice, compiled a list of artists with their phone numbers and addresses, put on a formal suit, put several examples of his work and resumes in a folder and began to walk around New York studios like a traveling salesman.

At the Jasper Johns studio, Mayer was not even allowed on the threshold at first - but they took the folder with his works. The young artist was upset and already began to think about a career as a manager at the same Beefsteak Charlie’s, but then he decided to return for his folder and came to the studio again. This time the artist himself opened the door and, to his surprise, young man, offered him a cup of coffee. A few hours later, the future master and apprentice were already discussing working conditions.

Mayer told about his acquaintance with Jones in the mid-nineties to the writer Matthew Rose, who was reviewing young successful artist assistants for Vogue magazine. The text was not published then; it was released to the general public in 2007 on the website Theartblog.org. Rose in his material noted how much the young energetic assistant managed to do over several years of working with Jones: he moved his studio to a more prestigious area, later organized the artist’s move to a new comfortable apartment, equipped studios in New York and on Caribbean island Saint Martin so that it would be more convenient for the master to work in them. In both studios, everything was done absolutely identically: from the color of the walls to the size and brand of brushes.

It is not surprising that the lively and not devoid of talent assistant enjoyed the artist’s boundless confidence. Jones even trusted him to work as an apprentice. Mayer sometimes added a few touches to Jones's paintings; however, according to him, the artist invariably erased or rewrote them. The assistant's department covered the entire life of his boss: from order in the studios to ledgers and accounts. Mayer took advantage of this between 2006 and 2012, when he gradually transported paintings from the artist’s studio in Sharon, Connecticut, to an unknown gallery in Manhattan to use as an intermediary for sales.

Mayer approached the scam as responsibly as he approached his work. He came up with inventory numbers for each of the 22 stolen paintings, did a census, inserted fake pages into a register of all of Jones's works, and photographed the pages to send to buyers. In addition, Mayer notarized documents confirming that all the paintings were given to him as a gift, and used these documents to enter into a sales agreement with an unnamed Manhattan gallery. One of the main conditions for the sale of paintings was the silence of the buyers. All individuals who purchased Jones's paintings from the gallery were obliged not to exhibit or resell the paintings for eight years.

It is not known why Mayer measured out his 83-year-old former boss and the teacher is exactly 8 years old (and most likely, only Jones’ death could be the reason to start openly selling stolen paintings). The circumstances under which the artist’s assistant quit his job, where he spent 27 years, are also unknown. It is unlikely that these were creative urges: in the 2000s, Mayer repeatedly exhibited in New York galleries. The last exhibition of his figurative ink drawings took place at the Chelsea gallery in 2011. Small earnings were also unlikely to become official reason care - in last years While working with the artist, Mayer was actively involved in charity work. With his participation, it was even opened art school near his home in Salisbury.

Perhaps Jasper Johns himself could tell about the circumstances of the breakup between the artist and the apprentice, but he refuses to comment on the situation. It is not reported which works by Jones were stolen from the Sharon studio. It is only known that Mayer labeled some paintings that were not finished as finished, but not exhibited, works of the artist. Considering how Jones' assistant began his artistic career, it can be assumed that some works were indeed completed, but by a different hand, and some were not written by Jones himself. It is famous when, in 2010, Brian Ramnarine, the owner of a foundry that worked with the artist, made a bronze copy of his “Flag” and tried to sell it for $10 million. Ramnarine, unlike Mayer, acted openly, even showing his work to collectors, so he was caught much earlier.

Mayer always spoke warmly of his master. In a later interview with the same Rose before the opening of one of his exhibitions, the artist said that Jones not only taught him all the painting techniques he knew. "The most important thing Jasper taught me is to think carefully about what I'm doing before I do it." Mayer seems to have learned this lesson very well: he thought for 27 years before robbing his teacher.

Jasper Johns(English) Jasper Johns, R. 1930) is an American artist working in the genres of pop art. Author of the picture "Flag".

Biography, creativity

Jasper Johns born in Augusta (Georgia, USA) on May 15, 1930. Soon his parents divorced and the child and his mother moved to South Carolina, where he spent most of your childhood. He lived alternately in the city of Columbia, where his mother lived, and in Allendale, with his grandparents. Despite the fact that, by Jones’s own admission, there were no artists in South Carolina at that time, he himself began to paint quite early. In 1947, Jones entered the Faculty of Art at the University of South Carolina, from where, however, he left after three semesters in 1948 and moved to New York.

In New York, Jasper Johns attended the Parson School of Design for one semester and actively attended various exhibitions, but in 1950 he enlisted in the US Army and served for two years, first at a base in South Carolina, and then in the city of Sendai in Japan (his service time was in years Korean War). After demobilization, Jones returned to New York, where he met and soon began to live with Robert Rauschenberg, who had a significant influence on him and introduced him to other representatives of modern American art of the time, including gallerist Leo Castelli and Alfred Barr (then director of the Museum of Modern Art).

The name Jasper Johns is most often associated with his early works dating back to the second half of the 1950s. In a manner early period The artist's work can be limited to the period from 1954 to 1961, when he lived with his boyfriend Robert Rauschenberg. Probably the most famous painting by Jones to the general public "Flag" was created just at this time, in 1955. This work caused a lot of controversy. It was interpreted by the most in different ways, seeing in it both a manifestation of American “imperialism” and, on the contrary, disrespect for one’s own country. Alfred Barr decided to purchase the Flag for permanent exhibition, but was afraid of being accused of unpatriotism and therefore carried out the entire purchase process through an intermediary, who then donated the painting to the museum. Art critics of the time also tended to see Jones's work as a definite political statement. So, for example, Robert Rosenblum poses the question exactly this way: “is it sacrilege or reverence?” and calls the picture “blasphemous and disrespectful.” However, the artist himself claimed that he saw in a dream how he was painting the US flag and then, waking up, began to work.

The theme of the American flag was played up by Jones in a number of other works created during that period of time. The most notable works here can be considered "White flag"(1955) and "Three Flags" (1958).

In subsequent years, the controversy surrounding this work by Jones did not subside, but went beyond the discussion of the level of patriotism of the artist. Considering the “Flag” in the context of 20th century art and trying to determine its role for various art movements, this picture began to be considered as one of the first examples of pop art. Jasper Johns can thus be considered the artist who, in a sense, paved the way for Andy Warhol and the entire American pop art of the 60s. In addition, "Flag" began to be created back in 1954, which is even earlier than Richard Hamilton's collage "What Makes Our Homes Today So Different, So Attractive?" (1956), which in turn is traditionally considered one of the first works in the pop art genre in Great Britain.

On the other hand, Jasper Johns's "Flag" can be considered as a certain continuation of the ideas of Marcel Duchamp and his ready-mades. In fact, the Jones flag can be transferred without changes to a material more familiar to flags and used exactly as a flag, i.e. hang it out of the window, go to the stadium, etc. That. we get something like a “readymade in reverse,” when a work of art can be used as a banal household item without any changes. The US flag is one of the most recognizable, and therefore the most banal symbols, etc. turning to it is still the same turning to everyday objects. “Playing” with an object, with a symbol, creating a work of art with the artist’s signature - all this is characteristic of Dadaism and therefore the work of Jasper Johns can be attributed to the so-called. neodada. However, it should be noted that this very term was proposed by Barbara Rose precisely to characterize the work of Jones and Rauschenberg, and the artist himself, speaking about the concept of “object,” noted that “the very concept of an object is doubtful. The canvas is the object, the paint is the object and the object is the object. Since the canvas is supposed to have some kind of spatial meaning, then the object painted on the canvas can be endowed with the same meaning.”

In addition to all of the above, “Flag” can also be considered in the context of overcoming abstract expressionism. At the same time, Jasper Johns himself was least involved in the fight against the prevailing trend of that time, but his painting can still be classified as figurative and he began to “multiply” symbols (although the concept of simulacrum can hardly be fully applied here) while the story itself with the dream and the expressive strokes are reminiscent of the image of the artist, typical of an abstract expressionist, etc. Jasper Johns again becomes a kind of “connecting element” between, relatively speaking, such figures of American art as Pollock and Warhol.

In addition to the flag, Jasper Johns also worked with a number of other symbols. For example, he owns a series of works with images of numbers in a variety of variations (“Gray numbers”, “from 0 to 9”, “0-9”, etc.), as well as many images of US maps and various types of targets . All these symbols are part ordinary world, but in Everyday life the average person tends to ignore their form, paying attention only to what they “mean” in their various combinations. It is extremely rare that the significance of a single number or letter is questioned, just as rarely does anyone talk about the very shape of a flag or map. Jones apparently ignores issues related to how individual letters or numbers interact with each other to create language and meaning. In his early work“Gray numbers”, for example, he gives the entire space of the canvas to a grid filled with numbers. The numbers are drawn on a stencil, each in its own cell throughout the entire picture with the exception of the upper left rectangle. They are arranged in a certain sequence, but it is not the meaning of each number that attracts attention, but the shape, structure, and order that the artist himself creates.

In the mid-60s, Jasper Johns took up sculpture. Here it is also impossible not to mention once again the confrontation between abstract expressionism and pop art. The fact is that one of its most famous sculptures– two beer cans (“Ale cans”, 1964) – the artist made in response to Willem de Kooning’s caustic remark about professional activity gallery owner Leo Castelli, which boils down to the fact that the latter will even buy beer cans if you say that it is pop art.

Jasper Johns' sculptures mostly depict everyday objects (flashlights, light bulbs, beer cans) made in bronze. About the semantic load of these works, one can say everything that has already been written about “Flag” and other works of Jones. Here we see a game with household items, a return from abstractionism to figurative art, a kind of message to the viewer who is tired of incomprehensible abstractions, boiling down to the fact that if you don’t need incomprehensible fantasy “patterns”, then you can admire objects familiar to everyone, for example, empty cans of ale. The sculpture “The Critic's Eye” (1964) stands out somewhat. this work represents a metaphor for the work of an art critic.

In the 80s, Jones began creating collages, the themes of which also touched upon the problem of the semantic content of familiar symbols and signs that are grouped in the life of the average person, without having any “real”, original common denominator, except directly for the person in whose head they all have some meaning and mean something. Taken out of the general cultural discourse, various signs getting back together already in privacy person and, of course, begin to mean something in it, but we are no longer talking about original objects or even ideas, but about simulacra - copies without an original.

After the final break with Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns began to increasingly strive for solitude. Since the 90s, he has hardly given interviews, but still continued to contact a few selected figures in the art world and exhibit his new works from time to time. In August 2013, Jasper Johns made headlines again after his assistant James Mayer, who worked for him from 1988 to 2012, was accused of stealing half-finished paintings by the master for a total of six and a half million dollars. Jones himself prohibited the sale of these works, but Meyer absconded with 22 works from the artist's studio in Sharon, Connecticut, to sell them through an unidentified person at a gallery in New York, claiming that they were all gifts from Jones. Jones would not comment on the theft, but contacted police shortly after the missing works were discovered.

Jasper Johns currently divides his time between his studios in Sharon, Connecticut, where he moved in the 1990s, and his studio on St. Martin.

Jasper Johns (b. May 15, 1930 , Augusta, USA) is an American artist who is considered a neo-Dadaist and conceptualist. Jones is considered one of the main forerunners of Pop Art. Born and raised in South Carolina. He lived most of his life in New York and its environs. He created his most famous works after meeting the artist Robert Rauschenberg and the work of Marcel Duchamp.

Features of the artist Jasper Johns: His most famous works are paintings with flags created using the encaustic technique. In addition to beeswax as a base for paint, Jones used pieces of newspaper, paper and fabric in his paintings. In some works he combines painting and sculpture, complementing paintings plaster casts and structures made of wood and metal.

Famous paintings by Jasper Johns:“Flag”, “Three Flags”, “Zero to Nine”, “Painted Bronze (Ballantine Ale Cans)”, “Device”.

Jasper Johns is called the artist who paved the bridge between abstract expressionism and pop art. Although it cannot be fully attributed to any of these areas. Jones extremely rarely gives interviews in which he does not talk about his personal life, prefers not to talk about the methods of his work and categorically refuses to somehow decipher the meaning and meaning of his paintings. The interviewers who do get the honor of talking with him have to try very hard to construct a decent text from the very meager material received. Nevertheless, journalists do not give up trying to get the artist, whom many recognize as the greatest living, to talk.

Nomadic life

After three semesters at the University of South Carolina, teachers began to strongly recommend that Jones continue his studies in New York. He followed their advice and enrolled at Parsons School of Design. Is it this educational institution It turned out to be not very suitable for Jones, or he managed to learn everything he needed, but he only lasted here one semester. In 1951, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, the artist was called into service and spent two years on military bases in South Carolina and Japan. After returning to New York, Jones again plunged into the bohemian scene. creative life and at one of the parties he met a man who, without exaggeration, turned his whole life upside down.

Just together

The partnership between Jones and Rauschenberg was multidimensional and varied. They were connected not only by romantic relationships, but also strong friendship and similar creative aspirations. In 1955, Rauschenberg moved into the same building where Jones lived, and they saw each other every day, discussing each other's ideas and testing the boundaries of art together. Their creative relationship is often compared to the partnership of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, and Rauschenberg once said that they “gave each other permission to do whatever they wanted”. Jones in one of the rare moments frankly recalled: “We talked a lot. Each was an appreciative audience for the other. We discussed our works and offered each other ideas for them. You have to be close enough to someone to do that and really understand what they're doing.".

Thanks to Rauschenberg, several more people appeared in Jones’ life who influenced his work and life in general. The first were Robert's close friends, composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. All four adhered to a special creative philosophy - later art critics would unite their views under the name “neo-Dada”. Next came the art dealer Leo Castelli, who in 1958 organized Jones's first solo exhibition, which marked the beginning of the unprecedented popularity of his paintings with flags. And last, but perhaps most important, was meeting Marcel Duchamp. Thanks to Rauschenberg, Jones saw the readymades of the father of Dada for the first time, and in the same 1958, the artists traveled together to Philadelphia to see them live. And a year later Duchamp himself appeared in Jones's studio, finally confirming the direct connection between European avant-garde and the new generation of American modernists.

The relationship between Jones and Rauschenberg lasted seven years and, apparently, did not withstand the test of fame. Jones's triumphant first exhibition, his appearance on the cover of Art News magazine, and the acquisition of three of his paintings by the Metropolitan Museum of Art could not help but influence the artist's life. The sudden fame that fell on Jones caused tension between him and Rauschenberg, although even at that time the artists rented separate studios in the suburbs of New York and saw each other quite rarely. In 1961 they finally separated. The end of such an important relationship that shaped him in many ways was a serious blow for Jones, and he devoted himself entirely to his work. He began to lead a reclusive lifestyle, began to avoid public events, practically stopped giving interviews and maintained constant contact with only a few close friends.

Unanswered Questions

When he completed his first Flag in 1955, detailed analysis It was not only the plot of the painting that was criticized. Jones' assassination attempt state symbol It was perceived by some people as blasphemy, and by others as a bold challenge to tradition. In the choice of ambiguous and rather unstable material, critics saw a metaphor for the changing nature of authenticity and identity. A few decades later, Jasper Johns' flags could rival the popularity of the original, and now they are most often perceived as an unambiguous patriotic gesture.

The artist still only chuckles at the numerous interpretations of his paintings: “I didn’t intend to make any patriotic statements. At that time, many people considered my paintings destructive and disgusting. It's funny how things have changed now." Jones always refused to confirm or refute other people's speculations regarding his work. He was reluctant to even comment on the techniques he used. Once during an interview, a journalist, desperate to get the artist to talk, asked why he chose encaustic painting: did he like the paints or did they just happen to be at hand? Jones thought for a moment and replied: “I liked them because they were at hand”.

Nothing personal

At the same time that Jones began painting flags, he combined painting and sculpture in his work. The clearest example— “Target with Four Faces” (1955). As with the flags, the artist formed the space of the canvas using beeswax and pieces of paper. And in the upper part of the canvas he secured a wooden box with four identical casts of the lower part female face. In these works one can already feel the influence of Dadaism and Rauschenberg with his voluminous collages. Jones complements his other targets various images fragments of human bodies, emphasizing the aggressive, cruel meaning of this symbol.

Jones would use a variety of objects and materials in his later works. For example, in the series with “devices” ( , ) he places wooden and metal elements on the canvases, constructing devices with which concentric circles could be created.

It is interesting that the artist then plays on almost every iconic work of his in different forms, creating drawings, collages and etchings based on it. Own flags( , )
and sculptures (for example, “Cans of Ballentine Ale” - ,) he thus turned into whole series of works made in different techniques.

Jasper Jones continues to spend his last years away from people in his studio home in a small town called Sharon. Now he can definitely afford not to look at anyone else in his work and devotes most of his time to etchings. If you ask him why he creates them, he will answer: “For nothing. For ourselves".

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns was often perceived as a mediator between two movements in art - abstract expressionism and pop art. However, its long creative path, on different stages which included painting, sculpture and joint artistic activity, continued for many decades and cannot be reduced to this short period in the mid-1950s. Taking ideas from the latest artistic directions 20th century and commercial culture, Jones found his way away from abstract art. Like the pop artists who followed him, Jones transformed appearance easily recognizable objects such as cards, targets and numbers. And, most importantly, it changed the way we perceive these symbols and brought to the surface the complexity of the phenomena of everyday iconography.

However, his artistic practice required the use of intense brushstrokes, applying thick layers of paint, encaustic, beeswax and other similar materials to recognizable symbols. Working to this day, Jasper Johns remains interested in logic, the phenomenon of language, and the exploration of meaning through altered symbols.

The subject - for example, the painting Target (Fig. 16) - is identical to the plane of the canvas. These works exist as independent and self-sufficient objects.

Jones met the artist Robert Rauschenberg, from whom he adopted advanced ideas in contemporary art. He also adopted many of the ideas of Marcel Duchamp; Duchamp's bicycle wheel and other readymades became the inspiration for a series of objects cast in bronze that Jones created in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Probably the most significant works Jasper Johns can be called a series of his early paintings, created in the second half of the 1950s. The American flag is depicted not flying proudly in the wind, but stretched out on a plane; this neutralizes the patriotic meaning of the picture and turns the flag into an emblem, something like a book reproduction.

Jasper Johns also experienced periods of fascination with Picasso1 and worked in the style of abstract expressionism (the overcoming of which is the leitmotif of the work of many pop artists). But Jones is remembered precisely as bright representative pop art. To the list of pop symbols created by Jones, one can add “targets” (this plot and its variations are widely represented in circulation graphics), symbolist “numbers” and the famous pair of Ballantine Ale beer cans, embodied in numerous paintings and bronze sculptures.

As the plot of its own famous painting Jasper Johns chose the American flag. However, the artist was not inspired by patriotic feelings, but only by the desire to present the most banal, easily recognizable object. What could be more banal than the Stars and Stripes? The Jones flag does not flutter on a flagpole or in the hands of a victorious soldier - it seems to be spread out on the wall. The artist does not depict, but transforms the object: he does not try to deceive the viewer into believing that his flag is real. With the help of encaustic painting - a painting technique used back in Ancient Greece- Jones creates a relief surface of the canvas. Three flags different sizes, located one on top of the other, blinds like the light of a signal lamp. Along with his other compatriot Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns is considered one of the most prominent representatives of American pop art

“One night I dreamed that I was painting a large American flag, the next morning I woke up and went to buy materials to start working on it. I start work. I worked for a long time on creating my painting. This is a very tedious job that requires a lot of physical effort - I started painting it with household enamel paint, which is used to paint furniture, and it dries very slowly. Then an idea came into my head that I had read or heard about somewhere - the idea of ​​​​using wax paints" (Jasper Johns). "Modernism: Analysis and Critique of Mainstreams." Under. edited by V.V. Kolpinsky, publishing house “Iskusstvo” 1980, (p. 256)

The interpretation of a painting as an object naturally led the artist to compare real objects with those painted on canvas, and then to create a sculpture. Jasper Johns' sculptures feature everyday objects cast in bronze, such as a flashlight, a light bulb, or toothbrush. One of the most famous works Jasper Johns - two bronze beer cans.